Militant Muslims Act to Suppress Dutch Film and Art Show

By MARLISE SIMONS

Published: January 31, 2005

Can angry young Muslims dictate what is and is not acceptable in the traditionally open-minded world of Dutch arts? In the last few weeks, it appears, the answer has been yes.

The Netherlands' main film festival, now going on in Rotterdam, canceled a showing of a short documentary denouncing violence against Muslim women that was made by Theo van Gogh, who was killed 10 weeks ago. An Islamic militant is accused of the crime.

The film's producer said he had pulled the film on the advice of the police after receiving threats.

At about the same time, a Moroccan-Dutch painter went into hiding after a show of his work opened on Jan. 15 at a modern art museum in Amsterdam. The museum director said the painter, Rachid Ben Ali, had received death threats linked to his satirical work critical of violence by Islamic militants.

The two incidents have reinforced fears among many Dutch that fast-growing non-Western immigration is having a negative impact on social attitudes in the Netherlands. Newspaper columnists and members of Parliament have warned in recent days that if people capitulated to intimidation, they would only encourage Islamic militants.

Some have pointed to the recent events as signs that militants are trying to impose their agenda and are undermining the constitutional right to free speech in the Netherlands. A few people have quietly asked if self-censorship might be acceptable to keep the social peace.

''It would be very regrettable if we had to start accepting self-censorship, if we could not show this kind of protest art,'' said John Frieze, the curator of Mr. Ben Ali's show at the Cobra Museum. ''We've been pleased with the show, not only because the work is good, but also because it generated much debate with young Muslims attacking and defending it.''

The exhibition, part of a series of cultural events called Morocco-Netherlands 2005, was opened by a prominent Moroccan-born politician in Amsterdam, Alderman Ahmed Aboutaleb, who delivered a strong plea for freedom of expression. But in a sign of the times, he was accompanied by bodyguards, and he has had police protection since he received death threats from Islamic militants.

In Amsterdam, a city known for its ebullient cultural life, local people say threats to painters have not been heard since the occupation by the Nazis during World War II.

The Cobra Museum said it had no intention of removing any of Mr. Ben Ali's work, about 40 recent paintings and drawings. The artist, who had been criticized earlier by some Dutch-Moroccans for homosexual themes in his work, has now apparently infuriated his critics with angry sketches that include suicide bombers and ''hate imams,'' evil-looking preachers, vomiting excrement or spitting bombs.

Since the opening of the show, the artist has stayed away from his home and his workshop. ''He has been very overwhelmed by the threats and the controversy,'' said Mr. Frieze, the museum curator. ''His work is very topical and controversial, but that is part of the nature of modern art, and we mustn't shy away from it.''

In Rotterdam, where the annual film festival devoted mainly to young, independent filmmakers opened last week, the anger over the withdrawal of the van Gogh film continued. The short film, titled ''Submission,'' used words of the Koran written on the back, stomach and legs of partly dressed women to denounce oppression of women in the name of the Koran. It provoked widespread Muslim anger when it was televised last fall.

The writer of the documentary, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a member of Parliament who was already under police protection, was sped out of the country on government orders. But Mr. van Gogh, who directed it, declined protection and ignored threats against him. He was killed on an Amsterdam street by a man who shot him and then slit his throat.

Mohammed Bouyeri has been charged with murder in the killing, and the police say he left a letter on his victim, listing others who would be future targets.

The Rotterdam film festival intended to show ''Submission'' as part of a panel on Sunday called ''Filmmaking in an Age of Turbulence.'' The panel included filmmakers who had suffered censorship in Russia, Indonesia and Serbia.

But the producer, Gijs van de Westelaken of Column Films, said in a telephone interview that he had withdrawn the film because he did not want ''to take the slightest risk for anyone of our team.''

''Does this mean I'm yielding to terror?'' he asked. ''Yes. But I'm not a politician or an antiterrorist police officer; I'm a film producer.'' Those behind Mr. van Gogh's killing, he said, had already achieved what they wanted, ''to frighten the country.''

The withdrawal of the film has set off many reactions, among them a letter from several members of Parliament to the mayor of Rotterdam asking him to intervene. The producer said that the mayor had indeed called him, but that he was sticking by his decision.

''This is not a freedom of speech issue,'' he said. ''The film has been shown on television, fragments have been replayed, and the text has been published. It's just the wrong moment right now.''

Ms. Hirsi Ali, who spent three months in the United States and is now back in Parliament, has announced that she will not give up her criticism of the mistreatment of women in the name of Islam. She said she was writing a new film, ''Submission Part II, and perhaps even three and four.''

Pressed by her party, the conservative People's Party for Freedom and Democracy, to tone down her work, she said she would not attack Islam as a religion. But Ms. Hirsi Ali, an immigrant born in Somalia who said she had abandoned her Muslim faith, announced that she would continue to ''fight against the excesses of Islam.''